Sunday, 5 March 2017

This is a story some of you may not have seen, as it only seems to have popped up in a few minor news outlets. I know about it because my brother has an all encompassing interest in things to do with the British military, and it doesn't get more British military than being arrested on charges connected with child pornography while attempting to flee the country with the evidence.

Briefly: the airport in Gibraltar shut down for several hours on the 8th of February, during a dramatic stand-off between the British army and the Royal Gibraltar Police. Someone described as 'a serving member of the British military' was attempting to leave via transport plane, taking with him computer equipment allegedly containing evidence concerning a child pornography investigation. The RGP wanted to conduct its own investigation, the military said no, and the argument ended with the RGP driving onto the airport runway and blocking the departure of the plane. This shut down the airport for several hours while everything got sorted out.

On the last day of February three senior military officers - described as 'three key decision-makers in the MoD chain of command in Gibraltar' - were arrested in connection with the case and several MoD sites in Gibraltar were searched by the RGP, including the Royal Navy's HQ. The three officers were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The case is ongoing.

For those of you scratching your heads and wondering what the nelly:

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory, part of the Iberian Peninsula, and has been a British possession ever since its capture in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession. Its relationship with Spain has been fraught, and Madrid has often tried to exert control over this wayward little Rock. However in 1967, and again in 2002, Gibraltar rejected Spanish sovereignty and is in most respects a self-governing entity, though Britain still controls its foreign relations and defense. As has been discussed before, this may change post-Brexit, but for now Gibraltar remains the flag-waving Little Britain it's been for many decades.

Gibraltar hosts the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. It's an important SIGINT base, and monitors North African and Mediterranean traffic. During the War its civilian population was evacuated and Gibraltar became a fortress, facing off against Italy and Germany and cut off from resupply from home. [Hence the tunnels, of which more later.] Only Franco's reluctance to let foreign armies onto Spanish soil prevented a land invasion.

The RGP dates back to the 1830s, and is the oldest police force of the former Empire, outside Britain itself. It was formed by H. Morgan, an officer sent for the task by Sir Robert Peel himself, and until fairly recently it also provided the territory's only emergency ambulance service. Its organization is modelled on British Police standards, and as might be expected given the territory's geography it has a significant Marine section in addition to the usual compliment you'd expect of a modern police force.

The airport is one of the scariest in the world. It earns this title because the runway extends into the sea, which means take-off and landing is within a hair's breadth of a salt water bath. It dates back to the War and its continued existence is a sore spot with Spain, which since 1987 has grudgingly shared it with Gibraltar. Spain claims that when the airport was built it annexed several dozen hectares of land it had no right to, a land jump which has soured relations ever since. Or at least soured them further, given that the relationship was already strained. Only in 2006 did Spain finally allow air traffic between Spain and Gibraltar. Whenever sovereignty becomes an issue the airport is often the first flash point.

The dispute which ended in a dramatic airport arrest is territorial. The RGP claims it has primacy in any investigation into crimes committed in Gibraltar, and asserts this right under the 2006 Constitution. The MoD claims it has primacy in any investigation concerning military personnel, and when it tried to extract the soldier and the computer equipment allegedly containing child porn it ignored the RGP and its warrant, signed by the Chief Justice of Gibraltar.

The MoD says it was about to conduct its own investigation, in the UK. Naturally this would have avoided any unpleasant questions from civilian investigators, and the unspoken but strong suspicion is that the MoD would have covered everything up 'for the good of the Service.'

It's difficult to overstate how extraordinary it is, not simply that the RGP would physically intervene to stop a plane from taking off, but that it would dare to execute search warrants on MoD property. This is Gibraltar; you don't get more Little Britain than the Rock, and its military links with the UK are exceptionally strong. It's as if one of the Queen's Corgis bit Theresa May, but then Gibraltar may be feeling its oats. It voted overwhelmingly Remain in the Brexit referendum, and may not be quite so unthinkingly devoted to the Crown these days.

So to turn to gaming:

Gibraltar turns up in the Dracula Dossier scenario The Harker Intrusion, originally a free .pdf and now part of The Edom Files. In that scenario the alternate scene The Gibraltar Triangulation assumes that the agents follow up on clues which suggest Edom maintains some kind of outpost in the old WWII military tunnels at the Rock.

In their day these tunnels could accommodate a 16,000 strong garrison with enough food to last over a year, complete with a power plant, military hospital, a water distillation plant, and a vehicle maintenance workshop. Operation Tracer, a secret plan to provide a hidden observation post in Stay Behind Cave allowing the British to spy on German operations should Gibraltar every be captured by the Nazis, was also based in those tunnels.

Stay Behind Cave was supposed to be able to support a small team of observers for over seven years, but as Germany didn't invade the plan was never used. Stay Behind Cave was sealed off and forgotten until its rediscovery by cavers in 1997. It was the Gibraltar cave defenses in miniature, complete with a water tank and a bicycle-powered electric plant, and currently it's under the auspices of the Gibraltar Museum.

With some creative fudging there's no reason why Stay Behind Cave couldn't be the Harker Triangulation Edom outpost, either because your game takes place prior to 1997 or because the 1997 rediscovery never happened. Or perhaps the 1997 rediscovery was carefully managed and the Museum's in cahoots with Edom. You're the Director; do as you see fit.

The more interesting sideshow is the airport shutdown, with anxious military officers and angry RGP units on the prowl. Let's say for the sake of discussion that this incident happens on the same day the agents try to extract themselves after investigating the tunnels. This leaves them in the airport but unable to go anywhere, and if that Jack that's been pursuing them all this while is still active then now is the time for him to strike. Except that since this is a daylight raid he hasn't got his usual Seward Serum compliment of abilities, so he has to rely on military contacts. Posing as an MI6 agent, he orders the military to arrest and extract the agents, but the RGP don't go along with this scheme. Perhaps they believe the agents are somehow mixed up in the porn investigation, or perhaps they just don't like high-handed British military types interfering in local affairs.

For an added twist, suppose that this wasn't about child porn at all. Suppose that the whole thing is actually about extracting sensitive Edom data, and that the RGP are either Conspiracy controlled or that some senior RGP officials are trying to curry favor with a Conspiracy asset. Better yet if Edom is tainted by its association with Dracula then the RGP could be covering for an anti-vampire operation, and intervened not just to seize a hard drive or two but also to recover suspicious boxes of soil, or similar.

If, as Director, you're looking for a convenient base of operations for vampire hunters, and not sure where to place it, Gibraltar's not a bad spot. It has excellent links with Europe and the UK, including a strong shipping economy - perfect for Axel Logistics - and its corporate tax regime means it plays host to a number of offshore companies and wealthy banks, any one of which could be a front for one of the major players in the Great Game. Suppose the agents are being bankrolled by the Hildesheim Legacy or the Former Gehlen Org, operating through a convenient shell company. What could be more reasonable than a Gibraltar-based shell, particularly since it would let the vampire hunters spy on Edom's Gibraltar outpost?

Then the February incident takes on a different color. The Gibraltar shell could be taking direct action against a fleeing Edom asset, using its local connections to do so. The child porn allegations would be a convenient excuse, allowing the shell to mobilize Gibraltar assets sympathetic to its cause. And if, during the police sweeps of MoD bases, the shell's assets tag along for the ride extracting Edom data, how lucky for the shell - and unlucky for Edom.